President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma on Thursday March 9, 2017, appealed to growth partners to work with a high sense of urgency to address the funding gap needed for the smooth conduct of the 2018 general elections.

“I don’t want anything that will delay and destabilise the elections process,” he said, and emphasized that the 2018 elections would continue to consolidate the country’s democratic process.

The president was speaking at a meeting with development partners where they exchanged ideas on shared interest regarding the forthcoming multi-tier elections. He pointed out that the 2018 presidential, parliamentary and local council elections will involve huge costs and the amount needed to pull it off is forty-eight million dollars of which government has already provided twenty-eight million dollars.

He called on development partners to step up, saying that he doesn’t want any postponement of the 2018 elections date.

As a true democrat, President Koroma told development partners that the country announced the elections date following series of consultations with stakeholders particularly the National Electoral Commission (NEC). He assured of the preparedness and commitment of all key players including NEC, the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) as well as the assurance of required legislation for the elections from the Attorney General’s Office.